Quantum computers learn how to simulate quarks

University of Waterloo researchers have taken a significant step toward using quantum computers to simulate fundamental particles like quarks, which are the building blocks of matter. Scientists at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) developed a new quantum computing method that simulates aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory describing how quarks interact inside protons and neutrons, under specific conditions that classical computers struggle to model. 
University of Waterloo

To do this, the team introduced innovative techniques that ensure the simulation respects the natural symmetry rules of physics and leverages the natural motion of trapped ions to encode more information efficiently, effectively expanding the computational capacity without requiring more qubits. This makes it possible to explore how matter behaves in extreme environments like the early universe shortly after the Big Bang—an area where classical computers hit fundamental limits. 
University of Waterloo

The research was done in collaboration with partners at York University and the University of Maryland, and the results were published in Nature Communications, demonstrating both theoretical and experimental progress toward using quantum computers for high-complexity physics problems.